THEATER : ‘Carol’ With a Different Tune : CSUN staging of Doris Baizley’s adaptation puts a twist on Dickens’ holiday classic.

What sets this version of Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” apart from the others, Guy Giarrizzo maintains, is its magic.

“There are clowns, tons of physical action--it’s pure theater,” says the director, who’s staging Doris Baizley’s adaptation of the holiday classic in a student production at Cal State Northridge.

The show, which was developed more than a decade ago when Baizley was working with the Mark Taper Forum’s Improvisational Theatre Project, originally toured local schools and was subsequently performed at the Taper over several seasons--although the text was not published until last year.

“It’s a play within a play,” says Giarrizzo, who is marking his fourth production at the university with this show. “There’s a traveling company of players who come to CSUN to do a version of ‘A Christmas Carol.’ As they gather onstage, they find there’s no Scrooge--he’s gone off to grow potatoes in New Zealand--and no Tiny Tim. He got fired for eating the Christmas dinner. So they recruit the curmudgeonly stage manager to play Scrooge, and a little prop boy to play Tiny Tim.”

In a separate production, Baizley’s adaptation is also being mounted by the Actors Co-op at the Crossley Theatre in Hollywood. “I hadn’t always wanted to do ‘A Christmas Carol,’ ” says director Alan Johnson, who staged a well-received production of “Tomorrow’s Monday” at the Crossley this year. “But I liked the way it portrayed the traditional story, the childlike wonderment, and yet set it in a different way.

“I thought it would be a big challenge for the actors and me--although I never envisioned it to be as challenging,” he adds. After teaching his cast to juggle, Johnson borrowed hand chimes from Hollywood Presbyterian Church (on whose grounds the theater is located). “There’s music, magic, mime, masks, wonderful choreography,” he says proudly. “A wagon becomes all the pieces of furniture, and the cast plays multiple roles--switching hats and capes.”

At CSUN, the company of 12 also play multiple roles, including a leading man and woman, an ingenue, a character woman and three clowns. The students--who range in age from 19 to the late 20s--”were called upon to develop skills they wouldn’t usually play in college: clowning, physical comedy,” notes Giarrizzo. “And it’s a very difficult show to stage, because of all the business: low-tech in terms of set, but it makes up for that in lighting and in the sheer inventiveness of the actors.”

“It would have been wonderful to spend more time rehearsing,” Giarrizzo allows. “I like to work organically. But on this schedule, I had to spell things out quickly.” The pluses and minuses of directing young people? “The good thing is that they’re still open, not jaded, willing to try anything. They’re dedicated to the process and haven’t developed any nasty habits or bad tricks.”

Where and When What: “A Christmas Carol.” Where: Campus Theatre, Cal State Northridge, 18111 Nordhoff St. When: 7 tonight, Saturday, Dec. 18 and 19; 2 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 18 and 19; 5 p.m. Dec. 20. Closes Dec. 20. Price: $4 to $10. Call: (818) 885-3093.